The first net of the season was completed on Wednesday night with a lot of rust being blown away from some out of practice individuals.

9 squad members made it in the end which certainly stretched the benefit of one lane to the maximum. Batting time was strictly limited with recognised batsmen being given 10 minutes and everyone else getting about 5 minutes.

Bowling clearly got better as the night went on, with many finding it hard to get a rhythm going with all the waiting around with another 7 queuing up to bowl. The problem was that if you bowled a wayward one, you had to wait for what seemed like forever to get another go.

One bowler who really stood out on the night was Paul Sindrey. He is clearly a man on a mission, as he has injected some vital pace into his bowling and he bowled a consistent line outside of the right handers off stump. Although some were a bit too wide to tempt the batsmen he didn’t once stray down the leg side.

Pits probably bowled the ball of the night with a beauty that swung very late and took out Boneheads leg stump.

On the batting front, Tony hit the shot of the night by smashing Mat through the covers to a slightly short ball outside off stump.

Most players were clearly 3 months out of practice and feeling their way back in gently. But blowing away the cobwebs is the whole point of these sessions, as well as allowing players to tweak and experiment before consistency is required during the regular season.

Everyone left the session feeling that they wanted more, both in terms of batting and bowling time. 9 players in one lane was just about manageable as it was the first session of the season, but on a regular basis this would lead to frustration.

At the moment we do not have anything at all for next week as Hatfield is now fully booked for the season. Club officials are exploring every possibility, and more news will follow online as soon as known.